WORCESTER — The Lunenburg woman who was dragged under a car allegedly driven by a drunken driver in March saw her two youngest children for the first time a week ago as she slowly improves in a local rehabilitation center.

After the March 23 accident on the Route 140 on-ramp to Interstate 290 westbound, Katrina N. McCarty, 38, was taken to UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus, where she remained in a medically induced coma for three weeks. Soon after, she was transferred to Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Cambridge, and on July 10, she was moved to Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital on May Street.

Brian S. McCarty, 64, of Gardner said his daughter has made remarkable progress, but she still has a long way to go. He said doctors would not give the family a prognosis. They said they would let the family know in a year. Ms. McCarty has gone from being on a breathing machine and a feeding tube and not being able to move or speak to being able to complete some sentences, take a few steps and eat some solid foods fed to her.

"There was a point the first few days that we didn't know if she was going to live or die," Mr. McCarty said in a telephone interview Friday.

Her injuries included seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a fracture in her lower spine. She is now walking with the assistance of a nurse on either side. The impact knocked her left eyeball out of its socket, but it remained attached. After surgery, she was seeing everything in quadruple for a while, but now has regained normal vision. Nerve damage that caused her hands to be "frozen" into fists is slowly improving. Her right knee was broken and still looks as if it is turned around to the side. Part of that knee is missing. The left leg was opened on the interior side from the top of her thigh to her foot. There are lacerations and road burns on her back from being dragged. And she suffered brain damage. She is not always able to complete a sentence, and sometimes she forgets what she was going to say, Mr. McCarty said.

According to police, Ms. McCarty had gotten out of her 2008 Cadillac SRX6 after it crashed into a guardrail on the Route 140 on-ramp to Interstate 290 westbound about 12:30 a.m. when a speeding 2002 Hyundai Elantra driven by Charles F. Bohigian, 50, of 10 Dryden St., struck her car and crashed into her.

Police said Mr. Bohigian continued driving approximately 150 yards with Ms. McCarty wedged underneath his car. When his car stopped, he allegedly got out, closed the door and walked 150 yards past Ms. McCarty lying on the ground unconscious and sat on the guardrail.

When police arrived, Mr. Bohigian allegedly told them that another motorist had run over the victim. He was charged with drunken driving (second offense), negligent driving, driving under the influence of alcohol and serious bodily injury, leaving the scene of an accident with personal injury or death, speeding and failing to use care in stopping.

He was released from jail June 13 after his bail was reduced from $50,000 to $10,000. His next court date is Aug. 28.

Mr. McCarty said his daughter had left early from Jillian's at 315 Grove St., where she tended bar, and had gone to Dragon 88 in Boylston, where people had gathered in remembrance of a friend's son who had died. Authorities have said that Mr. Bohigian frequented Jillian's and lived about a third of a mile away.

Mr. McCarty said family members told his daughter that she was in a car accident, but they have not gone into any detail.

After weeks of mumbling a few words, she spoke her first complete sentence during a visit by a family friend while she was at Spaulding. Before leaving, the friend sang a few lyrics from a Bob Marley song and told her that when she got better, they would have to go to Jamaica together.

"Out of nowhere, she said, 'You remember you promised,'" said Mr. McCarty.

He explained that his daughter's middle name is Negril, after the beach resort town in Jamaica, where she was conceived, when he and his wife, Kathleen, visited the Caribbean island. Mr. McCarty said he knew the late internationally famous reggae singer/songwriter. The family has been to Jamaica several times. His daughter was last there in 2011.

Mr. McCarty said the delay in his daughter and her children seeing each other was at the advice of doctors and psychologists. Isabella, 16, saw her when she was at Spaulding. But her two youngest children, 7-year-old Evangelina "Eva," and 6-year-old Daniel "Bro," saw her for the first time July 26 and again July 27.

Mr. McCarty said he sat back and watched as they kissed and conversed.

Bro told his mother about his birthday party, which Ms. McCarty's sister, Amy Strickland of Lunenburg, held for him four days after her accident. Eva said she prayed for her mother at night and cried every day, Mr. McCarty said.

"They were surprised to see her and in a wheelchair. But she was talking to them and remembered them," Mr. McCarty said. "Eva said, 'Mom, I love you.' And Katrina said, 'I love you too, honey. I miss you.'"

He said the visits have inspired his daughter. As the family was leaving, she called her mother back into her room.

Mr. McCarty said three reggae groups — Mighty Mystic, Soul Rebel Project and Dubbest — will play at a benefit concert at Jillian's beginning at 6 p.m. Sept. 6. Tickets are $15. All the proceeds, he said, will go to whatever his daughter needs. Her two youngest children are being cared for by Mrs. Strickland and her husband and the children's father, Dan Goldrick, of Hubbardston. The teenager lives with Mr. McCarty and his wife.

Friends have also set up a fund in her name at Athol Savings Bank, 196 Timpany Blvd., Gardner, MA 01440.

Contact Elaine Thompson at elaine.thompson@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @EThompsonTG.

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